Generally, many cabinet doors and drawers utilize round metal or ceramic knobs for readily opening and closing such cabinet doors or drawers. Such knobs are used at many locations at the home as well as in business. While persons having normally functioning motor control find the grasping of such knobs an easy task, unfortunately, such is not the case for those who are physically handicapped. Whether such persons are so handicapped that they lack any use or motor control of their hands or have limited motor control, objects as small as knobs for drawers and cabinet doors cannot be easily grasped.
There is therefore a need for a device which may be permanently or temporarily positioned over a drawer or cabinet knob to grasp the knob and provide an extended handle portion which may be more easily gripped by a handicapped person. Insofar as known, there is no device to accomplish these goals. The most pertinent U.S. patent is Koppel U.S. Pat. No. 3,909,055 which discloses a device for retrieving small sheets such as radiographs from a tank. The grasping element is a suction element having an external rim adapted to engage the surface of the radio graphs and grasp the radiograph using the principle of suction. The grasping element is connected to an elongated handle. Mathews U.S. Pat. No. 3,656,793 is directed to an Extension for Bath Faucet Valve Operators and includes a grasping element having a series of circumferentially spaced, internal ridges to physically engage a faucet handle. Another such device is the Faucet Extender of U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,320. There are a series of patents directed to utilization of a lever which is mounted over a door knob to extend radially therefrom. Such patents include Lind U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,489 directed to an adapter for providing a lever attachment to a round door knob. The purpose of the lever-type door knob as disclosed in the '489 patent is to assist the handicapped in their access to public facilities. Handicapped people have difficulty in turning door knobs and thus the lever-type door knob is highly recommended. The purpose of the '489 patent is to convert a round door knob into a lever-operated knob without having to replace the round knob. Other U.S. patents having similar goals include Szalay U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,883; Grecco U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,375; and, Peoples U.S. Pat. No. 2,808,282. Other patents known to Applicant but even less pertinent include Olson U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,262,585 directed to recovering floating objects. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,248,465; 4,679,556; 3,582,116; 2,721,597; and 1,668,043.